Megha Misra, CMO at vLearnLive

Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business?

Megha Misra : vLearnLive is a platform connecting both learners and educators; on one hand it is solving for the learners’ problems and challenges and on the other end, it is creating opportunities for educators across the globe to associate with the platform. For educators, there are no joining fees and enough flexibility is provided to choose the time-slots for teaching. This empowers the educators especially women to earn respectfully while working from home.

For learners, the vLearnLive team endeavours to bring the best in education for all kids irrespective of their location. Whether the student is based out of metro, non-metro, rural India or in any other part of the world, the platform provides a perfect base for students to ace their skill sets by imbibing knowledge and not falling into the trap of rote learning. The educators use models, stories, relatable examples to explain concepts to the students that improves their grasping power. By doing continuous assessment, it is ensured that the kid’s performance improves with time.

vLearnLive started its commercial operations in May 2017. At that time, the students or learners faced a plethora of challenges. For any additional coaching or learning needs, the child was largely dependent on private tuitions that had restricted hours of learning. There was no option to choose an educator from other parts of the country. The fees were non-

negotiable and did not offer customized learning options.Every kid is unique and has different learning needs, so vLearnLive came into existence to solve the varied learners’ problems. Currently, the organization caters not only to the needs of the Indian students but also to the requirements of international students residing in the USA, UK, Kenya, GCC, Canada, and Switzerland.

Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by vLearnLive

Megha Misra : vLearnLive provides all kinds of learning support to kids whether it is curriculum-based or extracurricular activities. At vLearnLive, we are making life easier and learning accessible for all by catering to the requirements of school-going kids not only in metros but also in smaller towns and cities. The learning support is available for all kinds of

board exams, all subjects, all Indian and foreign languages.The platform meets all kinds of learning requirements of students whether it is curriculum based learning, skill-based learning, hobby courses or learning national and international languages . So, whether a child wants to learn guitar, Vedic maths, dot mandala, science, maths , languages, different painting techniques, Rubik’s cube or scratch programming-it’s all there on the platform

Great Companies: What makes vLearnLive different from hundreds of other EduTech Firms?

Megha Misra : At vLearnLive, we offer a lot of benefits to students that are not available on any other learning platform. A few of the platform benefits are enumerated herewith:

-Customised learning option for learners for State Boards /ICSE /CBSE / IGCSE or IB Board and for any learner specific requirement.

-Option to learn from educators chosen by the students.

-‘Topic-based’ learning facility, which is a one-of-a-kind feature in this industry.

-Option to discuss the cost directly with the educator.

-Choice of fixing the learning schedule with the educator.

-‘Pay-as-you-go’ model of payment; no need to pay for the entire year or the entire session

-Learner given the convenience of learning in the language of his/her choice.

-Learners have a variety of options to choose from - can select from school based courses to language courses to hobby classes to skill development courses and more.

Learner can place a request for his/her specific requirements and the educator reaches out to the learner directly via the platform interface.This kind of flexibility is not available on any other edtech platform in India.

Apart from the above advantages, the biggest benefit is that the platform has excellent quality of educators registered on the platform.The icing on the cake is that these educators are experienced in teaching school curriculum.

They identify the gaps and problem areas of the students and accordingly inspire and guide them to perform better in both curriculum based learning and extra-curricular activities.At vLearnLive, it is ensured that regular assessment and feedback is provided to the learner so that they can improve their grades and performance at school.

Not only this, but we also run programs for the under-privileged kids as part of our Rural Education upliftment Program as we strongly believe that both education and skill enhancement options should be available to one and all.

Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face?

Megha Misra : Launching this new concept was not something that was built overnight. Many challenges came in the way. Back in 2017, there was no acceptance for online learning. So, building trust, confidence, and acceptability towards online learning and

teaching amongst the learners and the educators was an arduous task. Moreover, external vendors providing an online interface were exorbitantly priced. That is why vLearnLive built the teaching tool grounds up so that the educator can teach the learner online ,seamlessly, on the platform itself. “Herein, the learner can also share notes, assignments with the

educator. As the pandemic struck the world, acceptance towards online learning has greatly increased and many players have jumped in the education sector. So, the most challenging phase is now! The good news is that we are growing continuously at a phenomenal rate and that is motivating us to continue the good work”

Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for vLearnLive?

Megha Misra : The objective is to be the largest platform for all learning needs of the child cutting through all national and international geographies. If a child needs any kind of learning support whether it is related to school-based curriculum or non-curriculum based learning, vLearnLive aims to be the one-stop solution for all these learning needs. We are in a very exciting yet challenging phase of growth right now. There are many companies in the edutech space vying for customer attention wooing them with attractive discounts and offers. However, it is the golden period for edtech industry and with the value that vLearnLive brings in the lives of the learners, we surely are on the right track of growth. We are impacting the lives of students living in smaller towns and adding to their skills so that they have avenues to earn respectfully. We are also providing a platform to educators especially women to earn from the comfort of their home, thereby empowering them to earn manifolds by leaverging their skills.

Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be?

Megha Misra : Network, network and network- this is my single piece of advise to someone just starting out. By building the right network, one gets to learn new things happening across industries. It not only builds trust with other people but also skill sets that are needed to evolve continuously. This helps to attract the right set of people be it co-founders, team members, investors that helps to scale the business much faster!